"Favorite ECW Novel?" Topic

Which English Civil War novel do you recommend?

‘For the King' by Ronald Welch, one of a series following the Carey family through history. A boy's own adventure book that has stuck with me over the years.

Sutcliff's Rider on a White Horse, centering on "Black Tom" Fairfax and the war in the north.

If you fancy tackling a series of books then M.J.Logue's An Uncivil War is a series of five novels about Hollie Babbitt commander of a troop of parliamentary cavalry. The books were published between 2014 and 2016. They are Red Horse, Command the Raven, A Wilderness of Sin, The Smoke of Her Burning and The Serpent's Root.

Thanks all for these recommendations.

I enjoyed the 7 book ECW series by Nicholas Carter, a "two families" approach.

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There's a G. A. Henty, Friends though Divided. I haven't read it, but I've had a soft spot for Henty ever since I realized that his OOB for Havelock's Column--I believe in In Times of Peril--was more detailed and accurate than I was finding in most professional historians.

I liked all the Ronald Welch ones, and think "For the King" was my favourite. Rider on a White Horse was recommended by a fellow re-enactor, and is very well written.

Nigel Tranter's historical fiction series on the Scottish campaigns of the Marquis of Montrose.

Never read one… closest I came was Sabatini's Captain Blood.

But learning that Rosemary Sutcliff has one is enough to make me want to seek it out!

I couldn't find my copy to confirm the title but think it was "A Midsummer Night's Fantasy" by Poul Anderson. Prince Rupert recruits Shakespeare's Faerie Kingdom to turn the tide of war against the Roundheads.

The Poul Anderson book is titled 'A Midsummer Tempest'. It was first published in 1974.

I must search for a copy.

Arthur, there are several on ebay UK. Better world books have a copy for £5.10 GBP.

Thanks Brunanburh, but I already found and ordered a copy for £1.99 GBP plus postage on abebooks.

This premise could make for an interesting Fantasy/ECW mash up: Royalists employ English folklore tradition creatures; Parliament resort to Witchfinders and try to summon Christian angels to defeat the forces of magic and superstition.

Alternatively, those who believe the coincidental dates of Cromwell's victories at Dunbar and Worcester and his death are proof that he had sold his soul to the devil may let him summon demons to smite the malignants…

I would be very careful about buying from Better World Books. In my experience they've offered books for sale which they'd already sold, and some which didn't even exist. They're a notoriously late ship, and when I stopped buying from them, I found they were operating under false identities. I'd buy from someone else, but the book would (eventually) arrive in a "Better Worlds" wrapper.

That last hasn't happened to me since I called Amazon and read the riot act, but I don't appreciate being lied to by vendors.

In absolute fairness, I have a friend who has had no problems with them, and who as a teacher received free books from them. But my problems with BWB extended over years.